Psycho-social support for children in Palestine

Dear Friend and Supporter,

“One student said she doesn’t want to live anymore. The session helped her speak that for the first time.” - this heart-breaking detail was reported by one of ASHTAR Theatre's psycho-social stress-relief expert trainers from their recent facilitation experience.

Every story like this holds both pain and hope. Pain, because no child should carry such despair. Hope, because through theatre, that pain can finally be spoken, heard, and transformed. Moments like this are reminders, both painful and encouraging, of how critically important this work is, the work that ASHTAR has been able to continue implementing in Palestine thanks to your continuous support. We are especially grateful, as the times are particularly trying, where human hopes for political ceasefires, justice and peace, are experienced cautiously and with limited faith. 

When we say your contributions save lives, we don't exaggerate.

Our work has the impact in moments and spaces that have been deeply affected by the ongoing genocide and its ripple effects across the Palestinian communities, children in particular. 

Even during the quieter summer months, when schools were on break and our team was training and travelling, our mission never paused as we continued providing shared safe spaces for young Palestinians - for them to release and ventilate, to process and reflect, to acknowledge and understand, to re-connect and re-engage, to re-trust and re-build confidence.

One of the students said “I don’t always understand why I’m sad, but it helped to move and play.”

GlobalGiving Community that you chose to be part of is funding ASHTAR to support children like the ones quoted above through the worst days of their lives. 

We work in local schools, mostly based in refugee camps coordinated by UNRWA, as well as provide trainings for children and adults whose roles are to provide for children in civil society organisations.

We are proud of the recently consolidated drama-therapy methodology, reviewed by world-class psychologists and developed in partnership with Art-Lab UNESCO, that will be implemented in our sessions for the rest of the year and beyond.

What else can you do?

• Consider donating again - even small, recurring gifts twice a year make a lasting difference.

• Become a monthly supporter before the year ends and help us plan for 2026 with more confidence. 

• Share this campaign with your friends and community - become a local champion of psycho-social support through theatre.

Your kindness reaches places where light struggles to enter. Together, we are re-childing childhood - one story, one session, one life at a time.

With gratitude and solidary,

ASHTAR Theatre Team 

Links:

• Immortalise your name in Palestine: support our new project!

Over the past few months, ASHTAR Theatre has brought its theatre-based psychosocial intervention to Amari Refugee Camp in Ramallah, Palestine, working with 6th and 7th grade students at the UNRWA Boys and Girls Schools. These workshops are more than play, they are spaces for students to express, process, and begin to heal from the daily pressures of life under occupation, displacement, and social marginalisation as well as addressing issues associated with drop out rates and abstenteeism.

In the boys’ school, the sessions focused on emotional expression through storytelling and team challenges. One student shared: “The games made me feel like I belong in the group. Like I have something to give.” Another said: “I didn’t want to talk at first, but then I saw others laughing and joining. So I tried.”

Our trainers picked up on quiet but powerful transformations. “There was one boy who had just arrived from Gaza,” a trainer wrote. “He was isolated. By the third session, he was helping organise his group and even laughing during the theatre games. He found his voice.” Another facilitator added: “Some boys started calling out bad behaviour in their group, asking others to let people speak. That didn’t happen in the first sessions.”

The girls’ school offered just as much depth, and at times, heartbreak. Many students used theatre exercises to reveal stories they had not been able to share anywhere else. “One girl wrote a letter to herself saying she didn’t want to be alive anymore,” one facilitator recalled. “Another told me I reminded her of a mother she doesn’t have. She held my hand and asked me not to leave.”

Yet even in that vulnerability, there was light. As one girl said after acting in a role-play: “I felt like I could finally say something without fear. I was someone else, but I was also myself.”

Another session focused on periods and puberty, topics usually shrouded in taboo. “They were so nervous,” the trainer said, “but after we talked about how the body works, they opened up. They even started asking questions about religion, politics, everything. They were eager to understand the world.”

Our trainers repeatedly noted signs of emotional distress, withdrawal, bullying, anxiety, but also moments of leadership, peer support, and spontaneous kindness. “After just three sessions,” one trainer reflected, “students were apologising to each other after conflicts. One girl who used to bully others came up to me to ask for help resolving a fight, not to cause one.”

Teachers and school staff played a vital role. In nearly every session, they briefed us on student needs, supported interventions, and encouraged a positive environment. One teacher filled out a post-session survey saying: “We are proud to work with you. The girls feel safe, and that is the most important thing.”

Thanks to your support through GlobalGiving, over 100 students participated in these transformative workshops. They laughed, cried, played, and reflected. Many learned for the first time that “the person in front of us may be fighting a battle we know nothing about,” as one trainer reminded their class. And for a few hours each week, they were not just students in a refugee camp. They were artists, dreamers, writers, leaders.

From all of us at ASHTAR Theatre, and from the brave young people of Amari, thank you for making this possible. Your support is a quiet act of resistance, reminding these children that they matter.

Links:

• At the same time, our Gaza-based trainers were active as well.